Lowery described an incident in which police entered an arcade and a child pointed an arcade-style firearm at officers, who mistook it for a real weapon. “That made everybody change their guns to a bright orange, red, or yellow, [including us],” he said. Although the Zapper originally shipped in gray and only later switched to orange after federal guidance, the risk of backlash was real.
“We weren’t sure of the name either,” Lowery went on. “So we decided that we were going to do a focus group, which we did in Paramus, New Jersey, where Ron and I set up with a great company. They brought in about 20 or 30 housewives who have children, and the person leading the focus group told them all about the Nintendo light gun, Duck Hunt, and all these other great things, and about a third of the women got up and walked out. And the others were all saying, ‘No guns are coming in my house.'”
“Immediately after, we had another group come in, and all we did was change the name to the Zapper, but this time the results were the exact opposite; they all thought it was great. So that one little focus group could have had a big impact on our success.”
Over the years many titles used the Zapper, but Duck Hunt remains the accessory’s most iconic pairing — and it’s difficult to picture the NES library without it. Would the console have gained the same traction if packaging had read “light gun” instead of “Zapper”? Or if Nintendo had decided to exclude the peripheral and its signature game? Those are the small decisions that, in hindsight, mattered a great deal.
These are the best NES games of all time.
Source: gamesradar.com
